Just Playing Around...

This leaf dropped on to my camp chair-cum-footrest last evening as we were in the end game of our post-dinner cigar and brandy whiskey. I picked it up and marveled a lil bit on its bright yellow color, thinking it might be an interesting photo subject.

So we carried it and our old ass into the house, raised the shade on the kitchen window, wet the leaf and gently stuck it on the window to get the shots you see below. Details as noted below each image and click for larger if you feel moved to do so (as usual).

Just for comparison sake... the images above and below were taken with my grabshot camera, a Canon Powershot G5. I shot in macro mode, which turned out to be 1/320 sec at f/4. The image above is a 100% resolution crop.

A 45% resize of the G5 pic immediately above. More about the dirty window below.

I include this image just to show the SLR can focus, if operated properly. This is a jpeg as it came out of the camera, 100 % resolution and cropped. Both SLR images (above and below) were shot with my 50 mm lens; this one at 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 400.

A 100% cropped selection of the image below. Slightly out of focus.


This is a 40% resize of a RAW file, saved as a jpeg and the color curve is slightly tweaked. 1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. This also shows how frickin' dirty my window was. I cleaned it after I took these pics... or after the horse had left the barn. As usual.

I shot about 18 images last evening... and the interesting thing (to me) is that the G5 takes pictures that are seemingly just as good as those taken with the SLR... said SLR costing well over twice as much when the body and two lenses are all added up. I'm not discounting the fact that there may be some operator error in play here; that could well be. But that thought is offset by the fact that I've been playing around with single lens reflex cameras in a semi-serious manner for over 40 years... so I DO have a lil bit of experience.

None the less... we keep on keeping on. But we ARE just a little bit disappointed and discouraged about this SLR.

(Update added about ten minutes after originally posting: I got the captions all messed up due to Blogger posting the images in an order exactly opposite from what I intended. They're fixed now but the narrative is slightly whacked. Sorry about that.)